Big East Commish: No New Name Chosen, No Favorites

March 9, 2013

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The Conference Formerly Known as the Big East took another step in its “reorganization” Friday, with the current football-playing membership and the basketball-centric Catholic 7 members officially announcing a separation that will be take effect July 1 of this year.

The hoops schools will form their own conference and, as had been previously reported, will take the Big East moniker along with them.

That, of course, leaves the football schools in search of a new name in what amounts to a forced rebrand of a conference that’s been riddled by myriad departures of late. Reports surfaced Thursday that one name that could — stressing the word “could” — be the front-runner is the “American 12 Conference.”

Notwithstanding the nonsensical nature of attaching a number to a conference in this current climate of constant realignment, commissioner Mike Aresco, at least publicly, claims that there’s no leader in the clubhouse as far as a new name goes.

“We have not chosen a new conference name at this time and there are no favorites,” the statement from Aresco began. “We are going through a thoughtful evaluation of potential names for our conference, and will select a name in a timely manner through a comprehensive and deliberate process that involves our presidents and athletic directors as well as constituents from inside and outside the conference. We are excited about the prospect of re-branding and look forward to working with our institutions and our fans as we engage in this process.”

No specific timeline has been given for a new name to be announced, although it would make sense for such an unveiling to take place at some point in the next month or two.

Personally, I’m partial to the name that’s been floating around Twitter: the Big Metro American Conference — the Big MAC for short. On so many levels, that would be a spectacular way for the conference to trudge its way into the future.